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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

I got a letter from the endocrine clinic a while ago, scheduling Emily's next appointment with the consultant. (These appointments are set in stone, as the consultant doesn't come to our local hospital all that often.) So, since I had a meeting this morning, I asked Bobby to brave the grumpy receptionist and reschedule his physiotherapy appointment, and then reschedule his work morning, so that he could take Emily. Which he did. Only, as it turns out, when the two of them arrived at the hospital, the receptionist informed them that the appointment is actually for 8.45 tomorrow morning. And when they looked at the letter, why yes, so it was. Possibly not one of my finer organisational moments.

On another note, yesterday was an important day; it was the two-year anniversary of our arrival in England.

I feel like we actually live here now; we've got through all the hard work of moving and settling in and finding new rhythms and patterns. I still often feel taken aback or amused by the way that the English (or at least, the English that I know) do things, though. Yesterday, for instance, when we had our end-of-term faculty trip to Sheffield Park (a very pretty National Trust property), I had to struggle not to laugh when I saw that everyone else was dressed as though they were about to tackle Kilimanjaro. The serious hiking boots, the backpacks, the waterproof jackets (okay, the waterproof jackets were probably a good idea). But still, it's an immaculately landscaped park, for goodness sake! There are little gravelled paths, and it's practically flat. You could walk it in heels and a frilly dress and do fine. It's the small cultural differences that always take me by surprise...

It was a pleasant day out, though, and we had a good lunch at the pub afterwards. We ate outside, but I'm so happy that the smoking ban has finally come into play, so we could have sat inside if it'd got rainy without having to endure second-hand smoke and go home with our hair and clothes reeking.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had to laugh at your planning error, I do that kind of thing all the time. Oooooops.

On July 1 we also introduced the total ban on smoking in any public place, pubs, clubs and restaurants being the target. I went out last night and found it so nice to not come home smelling of smoke.

Have a great weekend.

Anonymous said...

You have not been in England for 2 years! That's insane.

Just spent a week in Sydney and ewwwwww with the cigarette smoke thing. Way more lenient laws and it was revolting.

Anonymous said...

congratulations on your 2 year mark in England.
I've always wondered what it would be like to live there.